Medicaid expansion will be worth cost to TN

4:33 AM,
Mar. 16, 2013

Written by

Cathy R. Taylor

As Tennessee lawmakers continue to ponder whether we should expand Medicaid to cover as many as 180,000 uninsured Tennesseans, maybe the real question is about the cost to Tennessee if we decide not to expand the program.

Not long ago, Tennessee ranked 48th among the states for health outcomes, and we learned how our tobacco use, dietary choices and physical inactivity were largely to blame for reversing past gains in life expectancy. We learned our children may be the first generation in history to have shorter lives than their parents. In addition, employers began to examine their health ...